Hello, I am new to this community, my apologies for having very little knowledge on any of the subjects that are discussed. My grandfather recently passed away and left me his tools, as I am an industrial carpenter I have no idea what many of them are. One seems to be a whetstone labeled a "Tam O' Shanter" Scotch Hone in its original box with TOS Fine written on the side label. I noticed a similar one further up in this forum. Can anybody tell me anything about the history of this type of stone? I seem to be unable to find a company name for it. I don't really even know if I want to keep it. In any case I would like to know more if anybody can help me.

The Tam O Shanter fine is quite likely a fine grade of razor hone. Fine, meaning, it is used in the last process of sharpening a straight razor. These were pretty decent hones for razors mined in the United Kingdom as opposed to Belgium or Japan or the Arkansas (US) quarries. Since they are natural hones there is some slight variance between them. But, one must consider the slight variances of individual hones as even man made in this time period were far from perfect. Nice hone if you have a straight razor (I have more razors than I need I think at times), and it might make a very nice finishing hone on some of your better knives...slow, but nice.